Hero MotoCorp Ltd., the world’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, said it will start shipping its first premium motorcycle, the Xtreme 200R, from its factories next week.

This marks the end to a long period of waiting for the fans of the machine that is priced at Rs 90,000 in Delhi, which is about 10% cheaper than competitors like Bajaj Pulsar NS200, and about 20% cheaper than the TVS Apache RTR 2004V.

The company had announced the bike in January this year and said bookings would start ‘soon’. Sales were expected to start in April.

However, the wait turned out to be longer.

Besides Xtreme 200R, the company has also announced other premium motorcycles, which will also start selling sometime this financial year. The next launch from Hero’s stable of premium bikes will be the XPulse 200, country’s first 200cc adventure bike.

Hero has traditionally been in the mass, or commuter segment.

SPECIFICATONS

The Xtreme 200R is the first one in its category to offer ABS as a standard feature.

The Xtreme races from 0‐60 km/h in 4.6s seconds, compared to 4 seconds for the Duke 200 and 3.95 seconds for the TVS Apache RTR 200 4V.

The Hero model has a top speed of 114 km/h compared to 135 for Duke 200 and 129 km/h for the TVS RTR 200.

“For us, the Xtreme 200R is not just any other product launch – it will catapult us to where we have been earlier – the premium segment. It is, therefore, our re-entry into a segment where we had a sizeable presence and market share not too long ago,” said Pawan Munjal, Chairman, MD & CEO, Hero MotoCorp.

“With the upcoming festive season in India, the Xtreme 200R will help us consolidate our market leadership. We will also soon commence sales of the Xtreme 200R in our global markets as well,” he added.

The Xtreme 200R is placed at the entry point of the premium category, and is supposed to deliver “useful real world performance with a range of premium features.”

In fact, the company has already launched the 200R in the North East of India, and said the response there was “overwhelmingly positive.”